Ever thought of creating something only to destroy it later? Well, Coke has done something like this in past with one of its product. We often get existed after hearing about a rivalry between giants like USA-Russia, India-Pakistan, Amazon-Walmart, etc. Everyone wants to know about the strategies one used against the other to bring them down. One such strange and very successful strategy by Coca-Cola often called “born to die” or “kamikaze” was used against its biggest rival Pepsi.
SITUATION:
The trend in the second half of 20th century was of “Clear”, “Purity” and “Health”. The Marketer also left no opportunity and bottled water soon hit the shelf, with no surprise it became a super success. Soda companies found themselves a little uncomfortable with this, but they managed to save themselves.
PEPSI ENTRY:
Big players like Pepsi also left no chance to grab their piece of market. They also came up with an innovative product and launched “Crystal Pepsi” – a transparent and clear Pepsi product. Large marketing campaigns and advertisement made sure it got a huge share in market. In fact, it acquired almost whole of the market. Below is the advertisement of Crystal Pepsi:
COCA-COLA ENTRY:
Coca-Cola watched everything closely and hired Sergio Zyman (Ex-Pepsi executive). He devised a master plan to compete with Pepsi. Soon, new coke “Clear Tab” was launched. It was a suicidal product with only aim to remove Clear Pepsi from its existence. There was no big effort to acquire the market share or to generate profit. It was actually a modified diet coke with saccharine sweetener in a new design bottle and never tasted good. Here is a small commercial of Tab:
STRATEGY:
The plan was to use the “Clear Tab” brand, make it clear in appearance and label it as a sugar free diet drink. Because of this it was placed next to Crystal Pepsi in the stores. People confused Pepsi brand and created a false image of similarity between the products. It was an aforementioned lack of understanding.
No Pepsi drink was a diet product but was clear in appearance. Due to this similarity of “crystal Pepsi” brand with that of “Clear tab” brand, people perceived it as a diet product or a medicinal drink. As the coke taste was not good enough, it eventually closed in 5-6 month from its launch date. “Crystal Pepsi”, although it tasted good, it was also closed due to the false image of the brand in people.
In a nutshell, coke created a bad brand, related it to the competitor. Then created brand confusion and effectively eliminated both brands.
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